With its detailed targeting options, Facebook advertising can be a fantastic source of bookings. But, you need to set up things correctly. If done poorly, Facebook advertising can cobble up your cash equally quickly. Follow this quick guide to success on one of the best advertising platforms of our time.
Let’s begin by going back in time when there was no Internet and advertising was limited to newspapers, magazines, television and radio. You would find a mass medium whose audience loosely matched the profile of the guests who’re likely to stay with you before placing an ad. Measuring ROI from an advert accurately was impossible.
Fast forward to today when you have platforms like Facebook that know everything about us through information we’ve supplied and aggregated data. With targeting criteria that range from basic demographics and location to interests, birthdays, family status, employment and more, modern advertisers have the power to define exactly who sees their ad, when and where, giving better returns and results.
Why Facebook Advertising Fails for Some?
The biggest culprit to failed or lesser successful advertising campaigns on Facebook is a ‘boosted’ post.
A boosted post is the simplest and easiest way to advertise on Facebook. But, it is the most basic form of advertising. It circumnavigates all that incredible targeting options that makes this platform so unique and gives you fantastic ROI. Without targeting, placing a Facebook ad is a bit like putting a billboard by the side of the road and hoping that your customers will see it.
Let’s Set up a Basic Facebook Campaign
Start with creating a ‘buyer persona’ or a profile of your guests. Using information from your property management system, channel manager, survey results and website analytics, write down everything you know about your prospective guests – age, interests, location, employment, family, etc.
Next, set up your campaign goal. Let’s assume we want to promote a particular offer. Based on your guest profile and using the STAAH Gift Voucher Engine, create a package that will appeal to your audience.
Give the package an appealing title and add the value-adds and elements included in the package such as free access to spa or breakfast. We recommend offering the package at a discount compared to buying each element of the package separately. And always show what the package would cost separately so they can see the value (eg. Spa Package for $300 – value $600). People love to feel like they are getting incredible value for their money.
Now follow these simple steps to build your advert on Facebook. You will need a Facebook Ad Manager account, which is easy to set up.
Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective
Your campaign objective is defined by your marketing goal. Do you want more likes on your Facebook page, are you looking to increase traffic to your website or simply want to create brand awareness. For voucher promotions, we recommend choosing ‘conversions’ as your campaign objective as you want to take people off Facebook and to your voucher web page.
In order to run a conversion campaign you must have the Facebook Pixel correctly installed on your website. This in place and continuing with our voucher campaign example, choose your conversion pixel. To keep to the basics and not get bogged down in details, select ‘Website’ and from the drop down select ‘view content.’
Step 2: Create Your Audience
Let’s build an audience from scratch for the purpose of this ad. Start selecting data that matches your perfect guest in Facebook’s audience builder a shown in the screenshots.
As you build your audience set, look to the right hand side of your screen for audience size, potential reach and expected results.
Step 3: Choosing Placement of Ad
Facebook gives you an automatic placement option. We suggest that for most campaigns, you edit this to show your advert only on desktop and mobile.
Step 4: Choose Your Budget
Set your budget, starting with a small amount and increasing it if the campaign is successful.
Tip – don’t increase your budget too quickly because this can hurt the results. We would usually suggest only increasing the budget 10% a day if you want to scale it up.
Step 5: Designing the Advert
Facebook provides a wide range of tested formats that work on this platform. Choose one that works best for you and start designing your advert.
We normally get great results with a simple image. If you have a high quality and attractive image of your own, use this. If you have not got a great image that stops people in their tracks, then use one of Facebook’s free stock images. Don’t place too much text on the image; Facebook has strict image to text ratio guidelines.
When selecting your image, think about what images will make you stop and look when scrolling through your Facebook news feed. People see a lot of media, and it’s got to be something that captures attention rapidly.
Write the text so that it engages and captivates the viewer. We are not trying to sell at this moment; we are just trying peak curiosity enough that they take their first click. Add the URL to the web page that features this promotion and you’re ready to deliver your ad.
The Essential Ingredient to Increase Conversions
Marketing 101 teaches us that people very rarely purchase the first time they see an advert, and this is where the Facebook Pixel comes in.
The Facebook Pixel is the magic ingredient that can massively increase conversions and revenue. If you have set this up correctly, Facebook will tag everyone who visits your sales page. You can then go and create an advert with the rule of ‘Only show this advert to people who have visited the sales page but not purchased.’
Imagine the power of that!
Retargeting as it is called in the marketing world is a free feature on Facebook and retargeted ads are generally cheaper on a per click basis. All you need to do is utilize it!
Occupi Online Advertising Segment can help you with your Facebook advertising requirements, from basic set-up to running more complex campaigns and getting results. Get in touch by emailing them at info@occupi.online.